Branches of Ideas
by ScienceImagineGreater
Summary: Series of One-shots (sometimes interconnected), ramblings, and deleted scenes of "One Too Many". Also what-if scenarios of future fics that may put up for adoption or write myself. AND deleted scenes of another fic I am working dealing with the OTM-verse - a divergence point of What-if James hadn't been so strongly in denial.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing. Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling. Devil May Cry belongs to Capcom.

In which I struggle to get the voice of a child right...

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 _What's in a Family (Part 1)_

Divergence :: The Diner

 **February 1981**

"Sure thing Mr. Potter!" A bubbly girl by the name of Susan Davidson pulled a fussy Harry into her arms. She laughed nervously when he began to huff in the beginnings of a temper tantrum.

"Well Ms. Davidson," James ruffled his son's dark – _white_ – hair. "I will return in four hours. Here's some…uh…'pounds' for spending and eating." He awkwardly shoves notes to the young woman.

"Mr. Potter! I can't take all this! This is too much! Here," she splits takes a few notes and returns the majority back to the gawky man.

"Nonsense," he pressed the notes back to Davidson. "Keep the change, as…uh…tip! Yes, tip! Trust me," he gives a scowling Harry a suspicious glance. "You'll more than deserve it. I have to go know."

He backs away warily to an amused Sirius.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Sirius side-glances James.

"He's my son," James started. "I don't care about _that_ , but also don't want greedy bastards trying to steal away his rights because of a silly issue of legitimacy. I'm going to do this, and going to this the right way too! Both our way and the muggle way."

"What about Lily?"

James lowered his gaze. "…I've contacted a barrister."

"Why barrister?"

"Lily didn't want to disappear completely from the muggle world. 'Highly suspect' she said."

Sirius furrowed his brows. That's the issue with the muggle-born, they are quick to think the wizarding world is too archaic and withdrawn from their world. And while it may be true that some old wizarding families refuse to mingle with the outside, that is not the case with majority of wizarding families. There are financial, economic, and personal gains from secretly mingling with the muggle world. Most of the muggles cast them off as: eccentric, reclusive, and/or misanthropic ( _hem_ Malfoy's _hem_ ). Usually in the case of marriages from a pureblood and muggle-born, their papers are sent to a Wizard Liaison who handles all discrepancies. But if James did what he's suggesting then…that complicated matters. Especially if he is going to go through with what he suspects he is going to do with Harry. From what he has heard, muggles favor the mother or the actual blood parents.

James looked beyond exhausted. Dark circles underneath his hazel eyes and hair even messier than usual, Sirius could only place a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Let's take this one step at a time."

"Yeah."

"Off to Gringotts we go!"

 **February 1989**

 **Location** : Near _Devil May Cry,_ Capulet City

It was lunch hour and a boy with fluffy messy white hair walked down the street humming along to music blaring from his Walkman. The beat of Styx's _Come Sail Away_ seeping from his headphones. A business man passed by the wandering child muttering "dumb kid's gonna go deaf before he's fifteen."

Another person, stared at the odd haired boy then glanced at his watch. Shouldn't he be at the school? The man shrugged and walked away. Not his business. The boy continued with his trek and eventually found himself entering a diner. He clambered onto an empty stool. He removed his headphones and let them rest at his neck palming his pocket for his wallet. The man in front looked at the small child unamused with crossed arms after placing the menu of the child.

"Ain't ya' supposed to be in school, kid?"

The boy shook his head earnestly, "I'm homeschooled, sir. Dad travels a lot, doesn't see the point in registering me. May I get the lunch special, for…um…four people to go?"

The man arched a brow, "Will you be able to carry all that?"

"Yes, sir. I'm, like, really strong."

The man pursed his lips but jotted the order and shouted "order up", then walked away to the newest customer. The boy patted a tuneless beat on the counter top, one hand was gloved while the revealed a pale hand. His annoyed neighbor lowered his paper to glare at the child, but the white-haired boy gave him a wide-eyed innocent stare and the man scoffed and went back to his paper.

"Hello sir, I'm Harry," the boy now dubbed Harry introduced himself.

The man grunted.

"I'm eight," the boy supplied.

The man adjusted his paper.

"Dad says you're supposed to introduce yourself when you meet someone new, 'cus it's the polite thing to do. What's your name, sir?"

The man pointedly stared at his paper regretting ever making eye contact with the boy.

"Um, I like to read and Uncle Sirius thinks that weird 'cus boys are supposed to play and not like reading so much. Uncle Re—"

The man sighed, "Kid," he pointedly ignored the 'It's Harry' and continued. "Didn't your daddy ever say not to talk to strangers?"

"Yes."

The man gave the boy a dry look. "Do you even know my name?"

"No, that's why asked you."

"Kid," the man placed the newspaper down. "Stranger-danger."

"But you're not dangerous." The boy stated plainly.

"How do you know that? I could be serial killer." At this point the woman sitting next to the other side of the boy was now staring at the two. She had a bob haircut with the most peculiar set of eyes. Her partner was also leaning over to see the man and boy conversing.

"I don't know. I just know here," he patted his chest.

"Can't trust your gut for everything, kid."

"Why? Dad says to always trust you in-stinks."

"In _stincts_."

"It's what I said!"

"No – never mind, just don't talk to strangers."

"Oh, okay."

"Good."

He picked up his paper and sighed when he heard. "Hello Ma'am, I'm Harry!"

The two women laughed. "Kid, what did I just tell you?"

"Um, to not talk to strangers. But there's strangers everywhere! How are you supposed to meet new people?!"

"It's okay," the woman with odd eyes spoke. "Nothing will happen. Now honey, are you here by yourself?"

"Dad supposed to pick me up here! He said something about eating in the park with Uncle Sirius and Uncle Remus. He said that my job is get lunch," the boy puffed his chest at what he considered to be a very important job.

"Why didn't your dad get lunch himself?"

"'Cus lunch is my respon-sa-tility. I do all his sandwiches! Miss Louie helps me," the boy shifted in his seat.

"Respon _sibility_ ," the woman enunciates. "Who's Miss Louie?"

"She's my sitter."

"Oh, why isn't she with you right now?"

"She got the flu."

The woman hums and continues conversing with the boy for a good fifteen minutes. With her asking random questions about his father and family, eventually a harried man with round glasses nearly bursts in the dinner with a fanatic "Harry!"

"Here!" The boy lifts his hand high just the man from the front dinner placed the boy's goodies on the counter top with a "That'll be $48.39."

The man carelessly places a 100-dollar bill on the counter, grabs the to-go bag, and pulls the boy off the stool to the ground. "Com'on we're late," and promptly drags the boy out the diner.

Bi-colored and electric eyes follow the strange duo.

* * *

Lady bursts into Dante's sad excuse of a shop with Trish in tow where he was currently being berated by an angry pink terror wielding a broom. "Come baring gifts," she states blandly.

In her hands take-out bags, suspicious.

"Thanks Lady, but I can't stay – I have to go, my mom said something about starting my training today," Patty threw the broom at Dante and walked away like the little lady she claims to be.

Dante simply watched as Lady (Debt #1) unpacked her "gifts" and Trish (Debt #2) sat with cat-like grace on his couch. Lady placed the Styrofoam container in front and smiled. Also, suspicious, she's here to collect.

"I'm adding this to your debt," she supplies holding out the plastic fork.

He grabs the fork, still suspicious. That money-grubbing banshee never does anything for free and she came with back-up too. Those two creatures want something from him. He opens the container and digs in.

Lady hums, "I ran into the cutest young man today in the diner. Isn't that right, Trish?"

"Yes, just the most charming gentleman."

 _I knew it._

"Why, he said he liked my eyes, didn't he?"

"He said I had really soft looking hair," Trish ran her fingers through her long blonde hair.

"He could talk a mile a minute."

"And could make a mean sandwich, I hear."

Dante sighed. "Are going to just pussy-foot around what you really want to say, Lady?"

"I don't know, do you have something to confess to Dante?"

"No."

"Well, the man the most interesting shade of blue eyes."

"Yes, why I have only seen that exact shade on one person."

Dante crossed his arms and leaned back on his hair. Those two…

"And his hair."

"Oh yes, the hair. It looked so soft."

"Fluffy too."

"And white," Trish gave him a pointed stare.

"He looked like a mini-you," Lady finally said.

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 **Review.**

Author's Note: This is a series of one-shots (sometimes inter-connected) that I come up with as write/edit/revise _One Too Many._ As I write and edited, I sometimes write these long passages that are scrapped. I feel kinda sad that these snippets lay forgotten or deleted into cyberspace never to seen again u.u

In Here:

-are some snippets of another fic I am currently working on called _What's in a Family_ these are either deleted scene or pointless ramblings to get the tone of fic done right. I will label them accordingly and will also post once I have enough jotted to make a convincing strong first ten chappies.

-diverging ideas of One Too Many

-what if-ideas that I want to write but don't have the time to actually write them done due real-life duties that I must attend to

-deleted scenes of One Too Many that I found pointless to the plot

-some ooc-ness may be involved, but then again that must happen as I ground myself to the characters. I'll try avoid it as much as I can. ;)

I will label them accordingly and some I may be put up for adoption which I will label in bold as " **Up for Adoption** ".

SIG is sorry, she didn't get around to working on _One Too Many_ she got side-tracked with the fledgling story _What's in a Family_ which is centered around the idea of James having survived to raising a quarter-demon magic baby Harry. It would make sense in that in this version Harry got to keep his name whereas in the other he's renamed Nero...hm...I'm rambling. Whelp, 'til next time. Hopefully I will have written a new chapter for _One Too Many_ by then. :3


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing. Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling. Devil May Cry belongs to Capcom.

Random One-Shot

 _Premise:_ Takes place some time after Mallet Island. In this world, Vergil did not jump in the Temen-ni-gru Incident but refused to keep contact with Dante. Somehow, Vergil still wound-up under Mundus' control and was defeated by Dante just the same. (I don't know if he survived in this case). Nero avoid magical detection from the American Magical world because they didn't want to deal with a quarter-demon baby wizard that could potentially harm the _human_ students - and really who would wants to approach a scary Vergil to recruit his son for proper wizard training. They also would a demon baby (even partial) would be taught demon magic. Nero also managed by sheer luck avoided Hogwarts detection due to him being "outside the radar" - meaning not in European soil. Of course eventually the Wizarding World catch up to him. (How Nero wound up in Vergil's care is a mystery to me as it is to you, my dear readers.)

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 **Face Stealer**

Dante walked into his shop – after having paid his debt to two hot leeches – and stopped abruptly. There on top of his front desk, feet kicking lazily, was a white-haired boy dressed in a black scarf, dark purple overcoat, dark pants, and blue shirt underneath with heavy boots to complete the fancy-pants outfit. He wore one black glove on his right hand while the other revealed a pale hand.

The boy appeared to be around ten-years old.

A conspicuous case leaned against his worn-out couch. He could taste the _familiar_ demonic energy leaking from the black case, the same energy the little boy was leaking out along with a _too familiar scent_.

"Hello, are you Mr. Dante? My name's Nero. Daddy told to go to you if he didn't come back by…um…if he didn't come back – I forgot."

Dante stared at the boy kicking his feet, no…

"Oh! He said that if that came," he points to the case. "To, um, to come here, y'know. And it came! It took me awhile 'cus I had to live with the Sisters. But that was like, a long," he drags out the word, "time. I kept tryin' to go...but, um…they said I had to say. Not safe and stuff…"

And Nero continued his now obvious nervous babbling, he chattered on about his time in the orphanage with the Sisters. A run away. An abandoned child.

"I forgot!" The boy hopped off his desk trotted to him but kept a foot distance away from. Nero, he noticed, refused to make eye contact only focusing on his amulet. He rummaged through his pocket and pulled out an envelope that has seen better days.

 _D,_

 _This is Nero, he is my son. His pathetic mother bequeathed this child to my care. Don't let my time be wasted turning this child as dull as you._

 _V_

"My daddy had necklace like you…" Nero, his _nephew_ , shifted. "You stole Daddy's face – it's weird. Daddy looks better."

He promptly kicked a shocked Dante on his shin.

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 **Review.**


	3. If Lost Please Call

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing. Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling. Devil May Cry belongs to Capcom.

In which author thought of this instead of working on Chapter 4 OTM-Revisied u.u

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Random One-Shot **{Up for adoption}**

 _Premise:_ Lily lost custody of Harry when he was six months old so Harry has been raised James and co. up to this point. Recently, however, Lily has gained back supervised visitation rights. Harry does not remember his mother and does not want to go with someone he considers a stranger and decided to disappear until "Mama" goes away.

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First Meet Scenario (1): "If lost please call…"

Harry slowed down to trot and stared at a store he found himself in front of with too big doors. The doors are crazy too-big. Like bigger than Mr. Hagrid! He walked up to the store front, got on his toes, grabbed the handle and pushed it open. A little bell rang announcing his arrival, wide blue eyes took in the empty shop. There was a large mahogany desk further to the left a pool table while on the right a couch.

What caught Harry's attention was that thing mounted on the wall. He'd never seen such a thing. And he's seen, like a lot of crazy things. The angry screaming baby plants, mama-drakes. The kitties with huge eyes, snuzzles. Uncle Sirius turning into a dog! Aunty Dora's crazy hair. (She's a real face-stealer, too.) Mama crying –

Harry "oh-ed" at the thing stretching up to touch the black cloth that was almost out of reach.

"Hey kid, don't touch that," a voice snapped.

Harry yelped and fell on his bottom.

He looked wide-eyed at the man dressed in red and…

"You have my hair," Harry blurted out and stood up readjusting his beanie. "Are you like Aunty Dora? She takes my hair too! Aunty says that we are special 'cus we're, uh – natural none con-firmest. Aunty hair changes though. It's, like really pink lots of times and sometimes purple or like _really_ red when she's mad. Uncle Sirius says she's walking moody ring. Uncle Sirius changes into a—"

"Kid," the man in red squatted down and made eye contact with Harry ignoring the boy's angry, "It's Harry!"

"You're doing this," he made a flapping-mouth gesture with his gloved hand. "I need you to do this," he stopped the gesture curling his hand into a fist and stood up.

The man's nose twitched like Uncle Sirius does when he's a dog.

"Where are you parents?"

Harry pressed his lips into a thin line and rocked on his heels.

"How'd you get here?"

Looking around, he continued to rock back and forth. Lips still firmly shut, Harry scratched the back of his head where the heat of beanie was starting to bother him.

"Kid."

Harry wondered if Daddy was angry at him and scratched at his temple. The beanie really was hot, but Daddy told him not to take it off 'cus the muggles don't like odd things done on kids.

"Just a second ago you were a motor-mouth and now you don't want to talk," the man muttered.

"You said not to talk," Harry whined.

The man sighed, "You can talk now, how'd you get here?"

"The door was open," Harry pointed at the door.

"Well yes, but why are you here?"

"Oh," Harry rocked on his heels. "I ran away."

"You ran away," the man repeated slowly.

Harry made a noise of agreement, "Daddy says I have to stay with Mama for a c'uple of days but I don't want to – she's weird and says things about Daddy that not true. She came to pick me up, but if not there then she can't pick me!"

The man in red sighed, "Do you have you Dad's number?"

"My sweater has it," Harry chirped and pulled at his unbuttoned jacket. And there it was, a little cloth stitched inside labeled: if lost please call…


End file.
